Former SC Dem chair: I meant to say that Nikki Haley should go back to a dress store

posted at 2:01 pm on May 7, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

Old and busted: Some Democrats are latent racists.New hotness: Some Democrats are latent sexists. And one of them is apparently both. At the very least, the outgoing chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party has proven that he never learned the First Rule of Holes. After having to retreat from his earlier statement that the state should “send [Governor Nikki Haley] back to wherever the hell she came from,” Harpootlian tried to readjust the message this morning on MSNBC:

Former South Carolina Democratic party chairman Dick Harpootlian today attempted to clarify remarks he made Friday at the party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner when he assured the audience that the Democratic challenger to GOP governor Nikki Haley would “send her back to wherever the hell she came from.”

Many understood Harpootlian’s barb to be directed at Haley’s ethnicity — she is the Indian-American daughter of Sikh immigrants. The longtime Democratic activist immediately waved off such criticism, and today told MSNBC, “All I’m suggesting is she needs to go back to being an accountant in a dress store rather than being this fraud of a governor that we have.”

Let’s read what Peter Beinart wrote yesterday for the Daily Beast and apply the filter of sexism rather than racism:

If Dick Harpootlian were a Republican, liberals would be jumping over one another to call him a bigot. In 2002 Harpootlian called Lindsey Graham, then running for a South Carolina Senate seat, “light in the loafers,” thus fueling a nasty whispering campaign about Graham’s sexual orientation. Last Friday he struck again, tellingactivists to “send Nikki Haley”—South Carolina’s Indian-American governor—“back to wherever the hell she came from.”

But Harpootlian isn’t a Republican. Until he retired last Saturday, he was chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. He made his comments about Haley at the party’s annual dinner, just before Joe Biden took the stage. And as a result, the liberal response has been muted. So far, neither Biden nor Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, whose candidacy for a South Carolina congressional seat has gained national attention, has repudiated Harpootlian’s comments. And for now, at least, conservatives are just about the only ones asking them to.

That’s a problem, because unless offenses like Harpootlian’s are slapped down hard, Democratic Party bigotry is likely to get worse. The reason is simple: the Republican Party is getting more diverse. Stung by its disastrous electoral showings among Americans who are neither white, Anglo, straight, nor male, the GOP has finally begun to broaden its candidate base. The party now boasts an African-American senator from South Carolina, Cuban-American senators from Florida and Texas, Indian-American governors in South Carolina and Louisiana, and Mexican-American governors in Nevada and New Mexico. In all likelihood, 2016 will witness the first-ever serious minority candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination. And it’s a good bet that either a minority or a woman will find a place on the Republican ticket.

The same applies here. If a Republican said on television that a female Democratic officeholder should go back to working at her parent’s dress shop, the national media would Akinize the Republican faster than you could say war on wimminses. And this matters for the same reason — more Republican women are running for office, and we can expect more snide remarks like this from Democratic leadership when they do, although it will probably take the form of diminishing the femininity of such candidates for espousing pro-life, pro-family policies.

Blowback

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Uh, that ain’t helping, pal. You could at least make a case that his initial remark was misinterpreted or harmless(I don’t think it was, but let’s play along). This however cannot be taken as anything other than a dumb, sexist comment. War on women, anyone?

If he meant to say something other than what he actually said, why didn’t he just say what he meant in the first place?

Either these Democrats need to take a course in effective communication, or they’re getting more and more prone to Freudian slips. And I mean more than the usual, “Vote for me!” and, “Let’s raise taxes!”

It is entirely possible that in his mind he really was telling her to go back to the suburbs (I doubt this is the case). But when you’re dealing with a female and daughter of immigrants “go back to wherever the hell she came from” has a different connotation. He could have stopped it cold with one of those non-apologies talking about how he just wasn’t thinking about what he was saying, sorry to have offended, immigrants are backbone of the nation…. etc. Instead he doubles and triples down on stupid.

And, to have this be the opening act for Biden? Wow! What do you do as the VEEP when the guy introducing you just makes a racist/sexist statement? If you are a Democrat, apparently nothing.

But Harpootlian isn’t a Republican. Until he retired last Saturday, he was chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. He made his comments about Haley at the party’s annual dinner, just before Joe Biden took the stage.

Maybe Biden is rubbing off on Harpootlian. Remember how Slow Joe told us that Delaware was a slave state, and the 7-11 clerks there all speak Urdu?

Harpootlian should be careful–he might run into Jill Biden’s double-barreled shotgun.

Harpoolian is a PIG…and now he is squealing like one because of all the flak he is getting because of his hate-filled comment. While he is a PIG, he is a smart PIG – words mean something. He knew what he was saying when he said what he did.

The root of our problem is the corrupt media.
This would be blared from every outlet if a republican said it. As it is the women and minorities in the republican party are erased from existence on the propaganda networks.

“All I’m suggesting is she needs to go back to being an accountant in a dress store rather than being this fraud of a governor that we have.”

Yeah, Dick. Sure. Whatever you say.

How’s it feel to get a dose of the treatment that Republicans usually get? Not too fun, I’d wager. Now try to imagine how bad you’d be getting it if you didn’t have the (D) after your name to provide you with some protection. I do feel a little sorry for you, though. It’s gotta be rough when you’re not used to dealing with accusations of racism, and instead are used to being thought of as a kind, caring, open-minded guy and all-around stalwart class warrior fighting for the little guy -again all due to the virtue of placing a (D) after your name.

Not to worry, though. As with most unseemly things involving people from your party, the Media will talk about it for a day or two in an attempt to appear balanced, then it will be disappeared down the memory hole, never to be brought up again, lest it cause some electoral discomfort, however slight it might be, for the Media’s preferred party.

Harpootlian has always been loathsome, bottom-feeding scum – which is exactly why he was so popular in state Democratic circles as to be a major player in the Party for 30 years or more, including three stints as Chairman.

SC Republicans have our own miscreants, many are part of the corrupt establishment and serve their own interests first. Some like Graham go off on their ego-driven maverick drives, and some like Sanford have moral failings.

But when you wonder about some of the Republicans we elect, remember that every single Democrat in the state is a low-life, corrupt, filthy weasel in the mold of Harpootlian. From the legislature right down to the sheriffs and town councilmen, to a man, woman, and child, they are all like him in most respects.

And you can add the entire staff of the Charleston Post & Courier to that list, too.

One problem is that GOP intra-party responses to racism are not nearly as swift or pronounced as the ire directed toward Dick Harpootlian.

Capitalist Hog on May 7, 2013 at 2:08 PM

That’s because the point is the hypocrisy of Democrats and their supporters, not the charge itself.

This clown can be the head of the SC Dem party for as long as he wants and I don’t much care what horrible things he chooses to say about his political opponents, beyond the fact that it poisons the well for everyone. But I would like to see these comments given national attention every single day by anyone who will point them out, until the day that we stop hearing about stupid false “dog whistles”.

The same applies here. If a Republican said on television that a female Democratic officeholder should go back to working at her parent’s dress shop, the national media would Akinize the Republican faster than you could say war on wimminses. And this matters for the same reason — more Republican women are running for office, and we can expect more snide remarks like this from Democratic leadership when they do, although it will probably take the form of diminishing the femininity of such candidates for espousing pro-life, pro-family policies.

Hence the Bill Richardson ploy on Ted Cruz from Sunday. You don’t repudiate the remarks — you get someone from the same ethnicity or gender (or, coming soon, sexual orientation) to go out and basically tell people that this person isn’t really a (woman, Latino, African-American, East Asian, South Asian, etc.), so it’s OK to trash that (woman, Latino, African-American, Asian, South Asian, etc.).

The Democrats aren’t going to give up their double-standard without first trying to convince people it’s not them who are at fault, it’s the minority Republican politician who deserves it, because if they don’t vote like a Democrat they’re not really a minority.

How’s it feel to get a dose of the treatment that Republicans usually get?

djm1992 on May 7, 2013 at 2:47 PM

He’s not truly getting a dose of it. If he didn’t willfully intend to be snide and expect to get away with it, he slipped and the ‘real’ Harpootlian (D) slipped out. Either way, I suspect he revealed his inner core.

For Republicans past accused, most often it was one silly innocently-spoken word that the LSM turned into a huge deal (macaca, anyone?).

To truly be given a taste of their own medicine, Dems need to be falsely accused when honestly innocent, and have their names plastered all over the place during an episode of media character-assassination.

Though I hate the term, because it’s a liberal one, THAT would be ‘leveling the playing field’.

Haley is a graduate of Orangeburg Preparatory Schools, and Clemson University with a B.S. in accounting. She worked for FCR Corporation, a waste management and recycling company, before joining her mother’s business, Exotica International, an upscale clothing firm, in 1994. The family business grew to become a multi-million dollar company.

Yet despite that fact that the GOP usually gets between 42% and 48% of the female vote, the Democrats continue to insist that a Republican woman isn’t a real woman.

You make this remark with no discussion of the stupid, stupid, stupid “stick this thing up your hoo-ha” legislation coming out of Republican run legislatures across the country.

Let’s keep that in mind when we talk about how the Democrats will have to change their line of attacks as the GOP becomes more racially diverse……..THEY WON’T.

ardenenoch on May 7, 2013 at 3:28 PM

Nice lame sentiment — until Republicans stand up to Republicans against bigotry nothing will change. You, just like most, only complain when you’re the object of ethnic-derision. Provide a link to any time you have called a Republican for bigotry.